Splinters of a soul
by Nagiru
Summary: When Akira was born, so was Ren. When Goro went to a foster home, there was already an orphan there, waiting for him. When the final battle loomed near, Ren decided that there were sacrifices that weren't worthy to be paid, and saved those he loved.


**Splinters of a soul**

 **aka, the story where both Akira and Ren exist, and Ren decides to save his own brother. Who is not Akira.**

 **Tags:** Akira and Ren are twins; Goro and Ren are raised as brothers (but it's complicated); (in summary: Akira and Ren are only twins in theory, because they don't even know about that, but Ren and Goro do grow up as brothers). Fix-it (but is it fix-it when things are still crappy and the only change is that the character does not die?). Original Persona. The story is told in two times (as in: half of it is told in the present, and half of it in the past).

 **Author's Notes:** First of all, this was written for Persona Kink Meme.

So, this is an AU where Akira and Ren are born as twins, no one knows it, it is... not all that important, tbh, and Ren grows up as Akechi's brother, because why not?

Some extra notes? Uh, I know that in canon Akechi was not actually adopted (... or, well, that's what is assumed. Since he lives alone and no family is ever mentioned...), but I wanted to formalize Goro and Ren's brotherhood, and I thought that if they both just kept being moved in between foster homes or even managed to find one where they didn't have to move... well, they would be separated at a point. And Goro wouldn't have the means to take Ren with him, not really. So, I thought it would be better to give them a family, even if not a very amazing one. (Thus, the Amamiyas)

Another thing: the italics are the past. I think that's pretty self-explanatory, but just in case... (also, the last one is a past that was actually present in one point of the story. You'll see.)

Quick note on Ren's Persona: Alaunus. He's the Gaulish god of prophecy and healing. Some people believed him to have some relation with the god Mercury (that is, Roman Hermes), which I thought fitting for the twin brother of the leader of a group of Thieves... and he's also the deity of some rivers. Anyway, thing is, healing. Healing, protection, peace, not war. He's not a belligerant god. He's... pretty calm. So, yeah, that. Ren is the one who's not a trickster, but a sibling wanting to protect his family. I like the idea he'd have a healing god, for that.

 **Disclaimer: Persona 5 and its characters do not belong to me, but to Atlus. I only chose Alaunus for this story, and even so, it is not mine. Were Persona 5 mine, there would at least be a choice for gay romance in the game, just saying. And I wouldn't keep** _ **changing the main character's name**_ **. Just a comment. Thanks.**

 **. . . . .**

 **. .**

The mask on his face felt constricting. More than that, however, the mask on his face _burned_ at him, whispered at his mind, saying this was his way in, this was his _chance_. His brother had always protected him.

This was his chance to protect _Goro_ for a change.

"Don't you dare touch my brother," he hissed angrily, snatching away his mask.

A form appeared in front of him, out of thin air, a voice whispering in his ears words of freedom and rebellion. Words of protection, of healing, of prophecies never realized.

He should be surprised. He wasn't.

"You hurt him, you'll have to deal with me," he promised, and the grin he wore was sharper than he was used to, bloodier.

 _Show them no mercy_.

These people had tried to hurt his brother, after all.

 **. . .**

 _Ren was five, this was the third of so many foster homes, and he was_ _ **tired**_ _._

 _He knew this wasn't going to last; they never did. He just… wanted a family. It was just so_ _ **painful**_ _being alone all the time. Being shuffled around all the time. Never settling down, never being able to call someone mom or dad, never having_ _ **friends**_ _._

 _He just…_

 _He wanted to have_ _ **someone**_ _. Someone to hug him, someone to tell him things would be okay._

 _He just wanted some warmth._

 _He just wanted things to be okay._

… _But, things never were. Because his mom and dad had died, because he was too small, because he was too smart, because he was too bratty, because he wasn't a good boy._

 _He just wanted a friend, but instead kids pushed and laughed at him, and no one ever wanted to play with him because he had no parents, and they didn't want to be_ _ **weirdos**_ _like him. Because he gave them bad luck and what-if they lost parents like him?_

 _And the kids on the foster houses never wanted to play, either, because they were older, and he was just too_ _ **small**_ _, and read too much, and why wasn't he cute like the other kids?_

 _He really just wanted to be_ _ **normal**_ _…_

 **. . .**

The being that appeared before his brother was tall, striking, _beautiful_ , even. Instinctively, Ren knew its name, knew its powers, just like he knew it was its voice sounding in his voice, telling him it would protect them.

" _Thou who wishest for the power to protect those who are precious, vow with me. Thou art I, I am thou. If thou art to give me thy devotion, I shall give you my protection. Nothing shall stand in our way."_

In that moment, Ren vowed. He vowed, because this being — _Alaunus_ , the voice, the being, _he_ , whispered in his mind, a grin on its, no, his voice — promised him the only thing Ren could need, the only thing Ren _wanted_. If all he wished in return was a promise, a proof of worship, then Ren was ready to offer him that. He was ready to offer him his life, as long as Goro walked away alive.

" **Mahamaon** ," he whispered, angry, hurt, focused.

Alaunus smiled, arm waving in front of him, and the light that blossomed on the ones trying to hurt his brother was so bright it burned, but Ren stood his ground. He didn't waver, he didn't look away. His brother had fought on his own for _way too long_ , and now it was his time. For once, Goro needed him, and he would be damned if he let him down.

 **. . .**

 _When the word came that a new kid had been transferred, Ren didn't even blink an eye. Kids went around all the time when they were orphans like him. It never changed a thing, either way, since many of them didn't last long, and when they did, normally_ _ **Ren**_ _was shuffled about, so it was stupid, either way. Making friends was stupid._

 _(Making friends was impossible)_

 _When the new kid sat down beside him during lunch, however, Ren was surprised. The boy was… good-looking. Seemed older, too. The kind of kid the other kids always flocked to. The kind of kid that was the total opposite of Ren himself._

" _Hey," the boy whispered, an awkward smile on his face, and… perhaps he wasn't good with people, either? "I'm Goro Akechi. What's your name?"_

" _Ren," he offered in return._

" _No last name?" the boy — he supposed he could call him Goro, since he'd offered — asked curiously._

 _And, if Ren was younger, he'd have been ashamed of it. As it was, he barely cared anymore, because he was the weirdo with imaginary friends, the weirdo who had too good grades, the weirdo who had no friends and would never be a good boy, after all. "Not sure," he answered simply. "Not like I've ever been out of the program."_

 _In return, Goro hummed quietly, but offered him a small smile. "I'm nine. You?"_

" _I'm eight," he answers, smiling cautiously back._

" _So I'm older than you. That means I'm your big brother, right? So, if you ever need help, ask away!"_

 _There was something about the offer, about the way that Goro smiled and blushed, and the way he ducked his head, that simply made Ren grin back, happy for once. Perhaps it wasn't perfect. They were orphans, and this was temporary, but this was a kid who had met him and hadn't run away, and that was as good a start as any other, in Ren's book._

" _Of course," he murmured quietly, a light blush on his face. "And if you ever wanna talk, you can come to me, okay?"_

 **. . .**

The group — the _Phantom Thieves, and, gods, Ren is fighting the Phantom Thieves. He's fighting_ _ **the Phantom Thieves**_ _—_ fell to the ground, but it's only momentary. He could see them struggling to their feet again, angry but determined faces, sharp eyes and ready beings _(Personas, Personae, Spirits, Souls, Us)_ by their sides, magic burning in their weapons.

Ren didn't waste his time.

He ran forward while they were still down, hand clamping down on Goro's wrist, and pulled him _back_ , into him, away from danger, teeth gritted and eyes focused on the Thieves on the ground, Alaunus floating before them.

"Let's _go_ ," he hissed to his brother. "Before they can hurt you."

But Goro wasn't shocked, not anymore, and he turned around with burning eyes behind the dark mask, and Ren could see the _hurt_ already in his eyes.

"What are you _doing_ here?" he demanded, voice tight and sharp in that way it became every time Goro felt betrayed or stressed. "You should be home, resting! You just had a cold, and now you're running around somewhere you don't even _know_! It's dangerous here! Go home!"

And Ren always loved Goro's brotherly side, he had always loved how Goro was so _protective_ and dear, but this was too much.

"You telling me to stand down and watch you _die?_ " he growled irritated back at him. "Because that's sure what it seemed like!"

"Of course not, but…" Goro faltered, and for a moment Ren thought he'd won. Ren'd thought he'd been able to convince his brother to accompany him _out_. But then, Goro continued, and it all fell dully to the back of his mind. "You don't know what's going on. This… I _need_ to do this. I need to avenge my mother. I need to… to bring _justice_ to Shido. I can't just…"

"Shido?" he asked worriedly, because he _remembered_ Shido. The Prime Minister. The man who'd come around when they were on their second foster home together, and had stared at Goro for so long that Ren had thought (had hoped, _had dreaded_ ) he'd adopt his brother, but he didn't. He remembered the man who'd snarled and called his _brother_ , his only family, an abomination, but had smiled charmingly at their foster mother and said he'd be glad to take Ren in.

He remembered the man he'd refused, angry and hurt, because he wanted _Ren_ , but he didn't seem to _see_ Ren. Because he wanted Ren, but he wanted to separate him from his brother.

"He…"

"He's making you do this, isn't he?" asked one of the Thieves as they all got up; the one with the long black coat and red gloves. The one at the front of the video-taped heist note. The one who seemed startlingly familiar.

Goro turned his face around, and Ren thought he wasn't supposed to, but he _saw_ Goro's face. The betrayal, the hurt, the admittance.

"I don't care. I don't _care_ , Goro," he murmured silently.

"Well, I _am_ working with him," he hissed back, without looking at him. To the Thief, he said, "Why do you care if I'm being made to or not?"

"Because you don't have to do this," the Thief said.

And Ren couldn't quite accompany them. He didn't quite know what _this_ was, he didn't quite know what Goro had been planning, but he knew his brother. Knew that Goro could be petty, knew that Goro could be _vicious_. Knew what Goro sounded like after a nightmare about his mother, and what Goro sounded like talking about his father, and he couldn't _know_ , but he understood _enough_.

"You don't," he agreed, silently.

He couldn't quite bear to see Goro's betrayed face.

 **. . .**

" _We're officially brothers, now," Goro said with a smile. And he had grown up from that awkward phase he'd first been in when Ren first knew him, he'd finally managed to become the person he_ _ **looked**_ _like, but this smile reminded Ren of their first meeting. This smile reminded Ren of the awkward child Goro had once been, the smart but incredibly blunt boy Goro had been unable to hide. "You and me. Brothers. Goro and Ren. I like that."_

 _Ren smiled back at him, cheeks burning from smiling so much, but he didn't mind. He felt so_ _ **happy**_ _._

 _Once upon a time, he'd dreamt of having a family. Once upon a time, he'd dreamt of being normal._

 _Now, he finally had it._

" _Yeah. Yeah, we are," he agreed softly, staring with wonder at the couple who'd promised to take them in — as a set, as_ _ **brothers**_ _. "I can't even believe it."_

 _When Goro looked down at him, his eyes were haunted for just the smallest moment, and he was nine again — nine and the boy on the bed next to his, the boy screaming in the middle of the night for his mother —, and he whispered brokenly back: "I can't either."_

 **. . .**

"You don't even know what I'm doing! You don't know _why_ I'm doing this! If you knew, you'd support me. You _said_ you'd support me, no matter what!" Goro yelled angrily at Ren's face. Ren couldn't see much with his black mask in the way, but from what he could see, he realized that Goro was incredibly close to _tears_ , in a way that talked of way deeper hurt than Ren had expected.

"Then tell me," he asked pleadingly, because he _couldn't_. He couldn't watch his brother, his only support, break away like this. He couldn't watch Goro drive himself to madness like this.

"I… Shido is a _scumbag_. He… he's the reason my mother _killed herself_. You remember how everyone treated me. You remember how everyone _knew_ I was more than just an orphan, how everyone repudiated me," he said quietly, brokenly. "You _know_. You saw it. You were there through much of it." Ren nodded along, because that had always seemed so _unfair_. So, maybe Goro's mother had killed herself, so _what_. "But… but it was _worse_ before. Before, I was the unwanted child. I was born out of wedlock, and mother… mother was so _broken_ by it, that not even she could love me, not really. She killed herself in the end, but before that I grew up as the one who no one wanted."

"I wanted you. I needed you," he whispered, because this seemed important. He wanted to know what Goro had been planning, _why_ Goro had been doing this, but he also wanted Goro to know this. He needed Goro to know he wasn't unwanted, because he didn't want _worse_ things to happen.

Goro still seemed hurt, but for a short moment he also seemed the one Ren grew with, the one who cried to drama movies and cheered up at the idea of pancakes in the morning. "I know," he agreed just as quietly, before continuing. "The… in-between you know about. You know when we first saw him. But… I didn't tell you that he came around when I was doing internship, and… I… I realized that… that _he_ was it. My father. He was my father, and he came to us, he _saw_ me… and he never tried to… never tried to make amends. That's when I realized he didn't even know about me. More than that, that he didn't even _care_. What he _cared_ about was that I apparently had the power to enter some strange world and he _wanted it_."

"Why didn't you tell him no?" asked another Thief, angrily. "Everyone would have been happier for that. No one would have _died_ , for one."

Well. Ren didn't know the blond skull-masked Thief, but he _certainly_ didn't like how he talked to his brother.

"Shut _up_ ," he hissed angrily, glaring up at the offending Thief, who backed away with a disturbed look on his eyes.

After a beat of silence, Goro turned his wrist around and wrapped a hand around Ren's forearm.

"So… I didn't tell him no." Goro admitted. "I thought I could take my revenge, and that I could… I could _use_ these powers. The first time had been an accident, after all. I never wanted to cause anyone any harm, but…"

Ren looked at him, and wished he didn't have to admit to things he didn't want to do. Didn't have to admit to things that hurt him. Things he'd _done_.

"But I did," he whispered. "I caused the mental shutdowns, Ren."

 **. . .**

 _After being adopted, Ren had expected things to change. He'd thought things would be_ _ **better**_ _._

 _And they were. In a way. He had a family and a stable home, for one, which was_ _ **awesome**_ _._

 _Yet, they weren't, either. Because it was still just him and his brother. Their parents had wanted heirs, after all, and not_ _ **kids**_ _. They had adopted teenagers for a reason, and it wasn't out of love._

" _I can take it." Goro said flustered, shaking his head at Akira's grin._

" _Come on, Goro. I don't even_ _ **have**_ _a last name. Being called different names gets old after a few months, really. Let me. You can be whatever you want," he added, patting Goro's hand. "After all, you once had a mother, right?"_

 _He knew he had; after all, Goro still awoke screaming about his mother, and he still hugged Rene every year, crying on his mother's death anniversary, until this day._

" _So… Amamiya?" Goro asked cautiously._

" _Yes. Ren Amamiya. I think it suits me, don't you?" he offered with a bright grin. "Goro Akechi and Ren Amamiya. Best friends. Brothers. Forever."_

 _Goro laughed, low and sweet._

" _Forever," he agreed._

 **. . .**

"Why?" he asked plainly.

"Wha-? I just _told you_!" Goro snapped, angry in that way he got when he was flustered. "For vengeance!"

"On a father who betrayed your mother. On a bastard father who gave you up before you were even born." Ren repeated slowly, testing it out.

Goro flinched slightly — but held steady.

"Yeah, I don't believe it," he muttered angrily. "You were always so _smart_ , Goro. You always wanted to be a detective. When you finally became one, I thought you'd be able to fulfill your dreams."

And perhaps Ren had said something wrong. Perhaps Goro had changed, after all.

But he _knew_ his brother. And the laughter that Goro just let out was a haunted sound, not one out of despite.

"A _detective_." Goro repeated, bitter. "You think me capable of it, still? Such a naïve child, Ren," he tutted with a twisted smirk. "I was never a detective. I was just Shido's pawn, waiting for my chance to strike back. All the cases I solved? I _caused_ them, in the first place," he whispered, dark and sweet, voice twisted and broken, and he laughed some more. "And now I _have_ my chance. And no Thief is going to steal it away!"

When Goro stepped back, he raised a pistol, and Ren jumped forwards.

It was too late.

 **. . .**

 _Ren hadn't meant for Goro to see the bruises, but he saw them either way._

" _I thought you said it had stopped!" Goro said angrily, pushing him down into the bed. "You said it stopped back in July!"_

 _Ren offered him a small, hesitant smile. "It had? It just… started again. I don't know why."_

" _Because people are_ _ **stupid**_ _," Goro muttered with a roll of eyes. "Stay still."_

 _He obeyed instinctively, holding still as Goro applied medicine to his cuts and bandaged them._

" _What happened this time?" Goro asked as he worked down Ren's left arm, wrapping bandage around a particularly bad bruise._

" _Well… I guess they heard I was adopted, and just… didn't like it?" he answered quietly. "They said something about me being too quiet. That if I was to be a freak no one wanted, then I should at least_ _ **try**_ _to make myself liked, at least."_

 _Goro let out an angry hiss that had no specific meaning, and the next time he applied medicine it was with too much force, the cut on Ren's shoulder stinging smartly with it._

" _Those_ _ **bastards**_ _…" he muttered. "When I'm a detective, they'll see."_

 _Ren laughed quietly at that, turning his face around to offer Goro one of his small smiles. "What? You'll deal with school bullies too? I thought you wanted to be a big detective, dealing with famous cases."_

 _Goro finished his work and looked up with a look that was a cross between determination and indignation._

" _Of course not," he answered primly. "I want to be a detective that helps the weak! After all, I have to help_ _ **you**_ _, right?"_

… _Hey!_

" _Thank you_ _ **so**_ _much, brother," he muttered with a roll of eyes._

 _Goro smirked haughtily up at him and shoved him playfully._

 _With a laugh, Ren pushed him back._

 **. . .**

Ren supported himself on Goro's shoulder, panting and sweating as he tried to move his heavy limbs after the battle that had made him wearier than scared.

"Don't you _ever_ do this to me again," he muttered angrily, staring up at Goro.

"… I promise," Goro nodded.

"Yeah, yeah, you can talk later. Is Goro still mad?" the skull thief asked pissed off.

"Sure. Mad with you." Ren answered with a cold smile directed at him.

The boy huffed, but backed away again.

"Sorry, are you okay?" the one with the red gloves — the leader; Joker, they had called him in battle — asked worriedly.

Ren nodded, but before he could say something, another set of steps grew louder, nearing them.

Automatically, everyone tensed in wait.

"What? _Goro?_ " Ren asked confused as the face of his brother approached from the shadows. But… it _wasn't_ his brother. Not really. Instead, it wore his brother's face, but with an arrogant smirk that didn't even fit Goro's public face.

"That _bastard_ ," he could hear his brother whisper angrily.

"Oh, Akechi, you have outgrown your usefulness," the doppelganger said with a twisted copy of his brother's voice. "The moment you tried to take more than you had any right to, you knew you were going to fail. Your plans were always doomed from the beginning, after all. Revenge, really? You were always a pawn. It was so easy to use you; you were so weak, so pliable. It was just a question of knowing which buttons to push, and you'd fold like a castle of cards. One only has to mention your dear _brother_ , and you become such a _dog_ … Ready to be put down for the sacrifice." He… no, _it_ laughed. "Admit it. You always knew it would fail. You always knew you would die at the end of it. You never thought you would _succeed_ in killing Shido. And you… well. It wouldn't do for the Prime Minister to be accused of murder, would it?"

Before his eyes, Goro crumbled away like… well. Like a castle of cards.

And it was all his own fault.

"Goro… I'm _so sorry_ …" he murmured shakily.

"Don't you dare. Don't you _dare_ listen to him, Ren," Goro hissed angrily. "He's clearly lying!"

"Am I? So, Shido is not your father," the doppelganger taunted with a smirk.

Goro shook from head to toes, and even the Thieves behind them seemed anxious. "I…"

But, Ren had an answer to that: "He's not."

Goro and the doppelganger both turned to look at him, and while his real brother looked something in between confusion and heart-breaking hope, the doppelganger wore the same smirking arrogance he'd offered Goro before.

"He's not. Because me and Goro? We have a _real_ father. And he might not _love_ us, but he like us well enough. And you? You're just _jealous_ , because _your_ father is a bastard who thinks that killing people is the way to go," he answered angrily. "And… Alaunus? **Hamaon**."

If possible, this light was even brighter than the one directed to the Phantom Thieves before.

If possible, the screams that came out of the doppelganger sounded like a broken spirit going out — and they also sounded like a broken soul _crying_ out.

 **. . .**

 _Goro had been acting strange lately. He'd been going out late, staying late after his internship at the detective office, and his public mask had been growing_ _ **such**_ _that it had been bleeding into_ _ **their**_ _life._

 _Ren didn't like it. He wanted his brother back. He wanted the Goro who'd promised him to become a detective so he'd be able to protect him. He wanted the Goro who always laughed at his face when he first woke up. He wanted the Goro who pestered him into making him pancakes every Sunday, because they were Goro's favorites and because otherwise they'd have to eat out. He wanted the Goro who always bought him sweets when he got his allowance, even when Ren didn't mention a thing about it._

 _He wanted his_ _ **brother**_ _, not this stranger who'd been going around with fake smiles and even faker excuses._

 _If it meant he'd have to follow him, Ren would do it. He'd do it, because Goro had been coming home so_ _ **tired**_ _he seemed half dead already. Because Goro had seemed so…_ _ **sad**_ _it hurt. Because Goro had been seeming_ _ **lost**_ _in a way that made Ren ache, that made Ren want to reach out, and because Goro had been there for him all this time, and now was time for Ren to be there for_ _ **him**_ _._

 **. . .**

The doppelganger — the cognitive-Goro, Goro told him — was still alive, of course. He was just… really, really pissed off.

"You guys go on ahead," Goro asked the Phantom Thieves.

And maybe Ren didn't like the skull-masked one, but he had liked the others. He'd respected Joker, even, who had stood up when Goro had used that skill that made himself mad with anger, and he'd even offered Goro his hand. Even though Goro had apparently tried to _kill_ him.

If the boy could forgive Goro for that, Ren could forgive him for trying to stop Goro in the first place, too.

"Will you be okay here alone?" Joker asked, analytical and sharp, because apparently that was his thing.

"Yes."

"He'll not be alone," Ren corrected, even though his brother had already agreed. "I'll protect him."

"You _won't_ ," Goro answered sharply. "You'll go with them!"

He smiled, full of teeth and sharp angles, and pushed him forward, the same way they used to do when they were younger. "Oh, I certainly _won't_."

Joker seemed like he wanted to protest some more.

Then, the cognitive-thing turned to them, grinned with bloody lips, and summoned shadows, and the Thieves _ran_ , throwing a _"You two better come out alive, because we need to talk"_ over their shoulders, so Ren took the opportunity, and shot the button to close the way in between them and the running Thieves.

"If we survive this, I'll _kill you_ ," Goro promised, worried eyes and angry smile on his face, and Ren laughed.

"If we survive this, I'll _let you_ ," he agreed, cheerfully.

 **. . .**

 _He knew Goro had to be doing something bad, for him to be hiding it from Ren._

 _He never had expected Goro to be dwelling with another whole_ _ **world**_ _, however — yet, here he was._

 _The world around him twisted and broke down, rebuilding itself into…_

 _Much about the same thing as before, he realized as he glanced about. Really, it was very similar, really. Very…_

… _Similar._

 _Except for the fact that Tokyo seemed to be drowning, and the only thing floating was… the Diet Building, which was a cruise ship. Which. Fuck. What kind of thing was this?_

 _But, he had no time to think about it, because Goro was quickly disappearing from his view, and he had to_ _ **follow him**_ _. Now._

 _So he focused back on his brother, and followed him. Even though the things he saw made no sense, and the people around him seemed incredibly_ _ **strange**_ _, and that his own brother had changed as soon as he stepped a foot inside of the ship._

 _It was all so…_

 _ **Strange**_ _. A whole new world. Such a large secret his brother had been keeping, and Ren knew nothing about it. Why… why had he been keeping it?_

 _Why… why was he walking with the same burdened face as he wore around him nowadays?_

 _Why did Goro seem to be walking towards his own death?_

 **. . .**

Later, Ren would remember the words that the Thieves had told them through the metal doors, but right then all he could focus on was taking out as many shadows as possible. He didn't know much about this world, he didn't know much about Alaunus, his _persona_ , but he knew he needed to _survive_ , he knew he needed to kill these shadows and kill this cognitive-thing, this _false_ Goro, so he could protect his own brother.

Right then, that was all that mattered.

Half-way through the battle, when the shadows fell to the ground and Joker's words were but a whisper in his mind, he felt like they would die. He'd heard shots ringing through the air long before now, and he was afraid Goro was _already_ dead, but he had no _time_ to go see, not now.

Except, right then, a new skill went through his head, and he _had_. He _had_ time to verify. He _had_ time to help Goro, help himself.

" **Diarahan** ," he ordered sharply, panting through his teeth.

He felt energy burning inside of him — something going out, something burning anew. He felt more alive than before, felt safer, felt _better_. He also felt more tired, in a different way, but he persevered.

He shot a new, powered light of **Hamaon** against the cognitive-Goro and ran to his brother side, kneeling beside him.

"You're still alive," he breathed out, laughingly.

Goro had been shot, yes. There was blood running out of his shoulder, and his mask was broken on his face, but he was _alive_.

" **Diarahan** ," he repeated, pressing his hand down on Goro's wound, and Alaunus shimmered to existence beside him, tall and white and shining, and he grinned gently towards him as the green glow took over Goro's body.

Not a moment later, Goro opened his eyes, smiling brokenly at him. "Of course I am," he whispered fondly. "I can't quite die and leave you alone now, can I? Brother forever, after all."

He laughed tearfully, but leaned forwards to rest his forehead against Goro, because he _needed_ this. Needed this comfort, this warmth. He needed to feel his brother alive under him, because he'd _really_ thought he'd lost him, this time.

"Thank you," he murmured against Goro's clothes. " _Thank you_."

Goro started laughing, but stopped abruptly and pulled him as he tried to roll sideways, a warning on his tongue. "Careful!"

The shot rang loud in the silence of the room. Distantly, Ren felt a burning pain on his shoulder, and realized he must have been shot, too.

On the shoulder. To match his brother.

What an ironic poetry.

"You _idiot_ ," hissed Goro against his ear, hand clenching possessively on his waist as he struggled up, voice steely as he growled. " **Ragnarok**."

This time, as cognitive-Goro fell, he didn't get up again.

"You did it," he complimented quietly, patting Goro on the hand, just like he used to do when they were small and scared.

This made him feel small and scared, really. This made him feel like being afraid of never having a family was a _safe_ fear. Like he should miss it.

… Well. He didn't.

" _We_ did it," Goro corrected softly.

Ren smiled.

In a moment or two, he'd heal them again.

 **. . .**

" _I don't know who you are," Joker said through the doors, and why was he even there yet? Ren had thought he'd run. Goro had_ _ **told**_ _him to run. "But you ground Akechi and… he needs it."_

 _Well. Ren might_ _ **ground**_ _Goro, sometimes — but it was more that Ren gave him a reason to be, and Goro_ _ **needed**_ _someone to protect._

" _Why are you telling me this?" he asked, careful eye trained on Goro and the cognitive-thing that approached them with a smirk._

" _Because I don't want Akechi to die. He betrayed us, but he was also part of us — and in the end, he chose us, not Shido. That means something, in my opinion. That he'd choose you at any moment means even more." Joker stated plainly. "So… Don't let him die."_

 _Ren smiled. "That's easy. I won't."_

" _Okay. Thanks." Joker agreed._

 _For a moment, Ren thought that was it._

 _Then, Joker started again. "Also… I really do want to talk to you again._ _ **You**_ _. Not Akechi. I… want to ask you something."_

 _Ask him something? "I guess…" Ren muttered vaguely. "Later. There's… Shit."_

 _Cognitive-Goro pulled out his own pistol, grinning like a maniac, and Ren ran out, ran forwards, and pushed Goro away just as he pulled his own pistol. The shots rang too loud, and he was afraid to look, afraid to_ _ **see**_ _._

 _Goro was still breathing under his palms, so he counted that as a win._

" _Akira!" Goro yelled before calling Loki forwards with a sharp movement of wrist. "Get justice for me!"_

 _From the other side of the door, Ren could hear a pause in the steps, and then Joker's voice floating back: "Don't worry. I will."_


End file.
